This story originally appeared in our September 2019 issue.
Cheetie Kumar delights in change.
“I love transitions in general, in life and seasons,” says the chef behindGarlandin Raleigh.
Chef Cheetie Kumar with the seasonal Marinated Octopus Salad with Mustard Seed Poached New Potatoes.Credit: Robbie Caponetto
“I’m excited by the vast array of things that might be possible.
“It was not the America we’d talked about,” she says.
“No shining, gleaming streets.
Cheetie Kumar as a baby with her late mother, Adarsh, who showed her love through flavorful meals made from scratch.Credit: Courtesy of Cheetie Kumar
No suburban house and carpeting or Hoover vacuum cleaners or spaghetti in pretty jars.”
Uncertainty was a constant, but dinner together was too.
She made simple dishes that Kumar says “sparkled,” such as Punjabi-style black lentils with kidney beans.
Credit: Antonis Achilleos; Food Styling: Torie Cox; Prop Styling: Missie Neville Crawford
“It’s like an all-day chili.
It was vegetarian, but it had a meatiness to it.”
“I think I knew how sad my mom was,” she says.
Credit: Antonis Achilleos; Food Styling: Torie Cox; Prop Styling: Missie Neville Crawford
If cooking was how Kumar connected with her mother, music was where she found herself.
“I loved going to ameat ‘n’ threeand naturally ‘getting it,’ " she says.
“That’s the way Indian people eat too.
Credit: Antonis Achilleos; Food Styling: Torie Cox; Prop Styling: Missie Neville Crawford
It’s athali
a vegetable plate!
You’ve got a bean, a vegetable; you may have some pickled cucumbers.
It’s the exact same.”
Beyond the shared ingredients, there were other commonalities between the two cultures.
It may seem like an unexpected combination, but it’s one that she says shouldn’t surprise us.
“I feel her [at the restaurant] all the time,” she adds.
“The patience in the cooking is hers.
it’s possible for you to’t rush a good masala.
You have to cook the onions slowly and can’t compromise that.”
“Slow and steady.
That was my mom’s motto, so that is what I’m going with.”
